The Biden administration is offering a reward of up to $20 million for information on a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accused of attempted murder. Donald Trumpformer national security adviser John Bolton.
US officials say Shahram Poursafi Between 2021 and 2022, he allegedly worked to organize an assassination-for-hire plot targeting Bolton, hiring criminals in the United States to kill Bolton in Washington or Maryland for $300,000.
“Poursafi told the would-be assassin — who actually became a confidential source for U.S. investigators — that there would be a second assassination case for him after he completed the Bolton murder,” the State Department said in a statement announcing the award.
The bounty offer came after US intelligence officials tipped off Trump about an Iranian plot to assassinate him.
According to US and Western officials, Iran has often turned to criminal elements and other third parties to carry out operations against opponents and critics abroad.
In January, US authorities charged an Iranian citizen and two Canadian citizens, including a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, with conspiring against an Iranian refugee living in Maryland.
The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program said it was willing to pay up to $20 million for information leading to Pursafi’s arrest or conviction.
Poursafi was indicted in August 2022 for his part in the plot against Bolton. He is free abroad.
Iran He has denied plotting against Trump, current or former officials, or others abroad.
But Iran’s leaders have vowed to avenge the 2020 US drone strike that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.
Soleimani led the IRGC’s Quds Force, which supports the activities of Iran’s proxy forces in Yemen, such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthi rebels. Then-President Trump He allowed the vacation of January 2020 Soleimani and four others were killed near the Baghdad airport. Bolton served as Trump’s national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019.
In an interview with NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell this week, Iran’s Vice President Mohammad Javad Zarif responded to a question about alleged assassination threats against American officials: “We don’t assassinate people, but the point is that they killed a respected Iranian general.” they killed. .”
Bolton told Mitchell on Thursday that he thinks the United States needs to be “more proactive” about Iran’s threats.
“When they come after us, current and former government officials, for doing their jobs, it’s really an attack on the United States government itself,” said Bolton, who is under 24-hour protection due to Iranian death threats. “I don’t think it’s the best way to be passive about it. We know that this is more than idle speculation in Tehran.”